About this book

They were born with special gifts, born to be together, born to show the world a special kind of love.

Mee was born into a world of silence.Neither of his parents could hear or speak.But Mee could sing, and everyone who heard him marveled at the beauty of his voice.When he became a young man, after his parents’ deaths, he became a singer of sorrows, traveling to where there was death or disease, funerals or disasters, and singing to the people to ease their sorrows and comfort their hearts.And the more he sang, the farther his fame spread.

In another country, far away, there lived a young woman named Mitou. She had been born into a world of noise, of screaming, cursing and anger, as her parents fought constantly.She learned by the age of three to avoid anyone who could speak, fearing, expecting their words to hit and hurt, even when it was merely someone calling her to dinner.At four, she found an accordion in the attic, and it saved her sanity, if not her very life.When she played, she couldn’t hear the fights, and neither could anyone around her.So Mitou became a merrymaker, able to cheer up everyone who heard her music.But she would not speak.Words were too dangerous.

When Mitou was about fourteen, Mee’s fame had spread to her part of the world.“He is silent until he begins to sing his songs,” she was told, “and as he sings, all your sadness and pain are absorbed into his song of sorrows.”Mitou had heard the strange stories about their being born at the same time, and the signs and wonders that had accompanied their births.Over time, she came to believe that they were meant to be together.He would console people with his songs, and she would make them dance and sing.Mee was travelling east, so Mitou started traveling west.They were both famous.If they were in the same area, surely their paths would cross.

Each of us has a destiny that draws us onward.What destiny lies ahead for Mee and Mitou, and will it draw them together?

This booktalk was written by university professor, librarian, and booktalking expert Joni Richards Bodart.